“she wanted to know what American writers I liked. "Hawthorne, Henry James, Emily Dickinson…" "No, living." Ah, well, hmm, let's see: how difficult, the rival factor being what it is, for a contemporary author, or would-be author, to confess admiration for another. At last I said, "Not Hemingway—a really dishonest man, the closet-everything. Not Thomas Wolfe—all that purple upchuck; of course, he isn't living. Faulkner, sometimes: Light in August. Fitzgerald, sometimes: Diamond as Big as the Ritz, Tender Is the Night. I really like Willa Cather. Have you read My Mortal Enemy?" With no particular expression, she said, "Actually, I wrote it.” Henry JamesErnest HemingwayEmily DickinsonTender Is The NightF Scott FitzgeraldWilliam FaulknerThomas WolfeWilla CatherNathaniel HawthorneLight In AugustDiamond As Big As The Ritz Book:Portraits and Observations: The Essays of Truman Capote Source: Portraits and Observations: The Essays of Truman Capote